EDITORIAL: Is it possible to love and hate? — The strange case of Jennifer Pan

It is most likely unfathomable to absorb the idea of attempting to kill your parents. However Jennifer Pan, 28, from Toronto acted on the idea. She was tried on attempted murder in collaboration with her then-boyfriend, Daniel Wong, to hire men to kill her parents, Hann and Bich, both from Vietnam. She was sentenced to life with no parole for 25 years in the case of the murder of her mother and the attempted murder of her father.

The facts about the case are revealed in detail in the recent Toronto Life article by a former classmate, Karen Ho. It reads as if a novel or a movie release. If you are not familiar with the story, you are encouraged to read the article, which triggered the recent attention.

According to the article, Pan believed her parents to be too demanding:

“Hann was the classic tiger dad, and Bich his reluctant accomplice. They picked Jennifer up from school at the end of the day, monitored her extracurricular activities and forbade her from attending dances, which Hann considered unproductive.”

According to the article, the demands led to her cutting herself, and also forging her grades, transcripts, and acceptance letters from colleges, presumed to be due to the need of acceptance from her parents.

There were various reactions from the Asian Weekly staff, ranging from she was “clearly mentally disturbed,” to “she was insane to hire hitmen to kill her parents, but her parents were insane too.”

And then there is the idea of recognizing the mental and psychological symptoms that parenting may have gone too far. Where do you draw the line? Are both parties to blame?